Friend of Erol ... Kate Jackson of the Long Blondes. Photograph: Lorna Roach

In this week's podcast we get giddy and expectations head into the stratosphere etc when Sheffield's the Long Blondes come into the pod to chat ahead of the release of their new album, Couples.

They talk with Rosie "The Voice" Swash about autobiographical music, returning to the studio and working with club king Erol Alkan, who produced Couples.

Rosie is nowhere else to be seen, or indeed heard, on this week's show, as she takes a hardly-deserved break. But Paul (aka Ben/Pete/Methuselah) is on hand to grasp the reins. He's joined in the studio by Laura Barton and Sarah Boden from Observer Music Monthly to chew over some of the week's new releases: namely those from Johnny Flynn, Madonna and Neon Neon.

Click here to listen to the show and you can subscribe from that page too. If you do so, it will help our iTunes chart rating and in turn will make it more likely that we'll be paid at the end of the month.